Case Study: The Mabion - 57 Homes for Beacon Hill

The Mabion is named in honor of Ray Mabion Sr. and Jr., pillars of Kansas City's community. In affordable housing development, names matter. A building is not a spreadsheet. It is a place where families will live, where children will grow up, where memories will be made. Naming this development after the Mabion family is a statement about what we value: legacy, community, and the people who built the neighborhoods long before the developers arrived.

The Mabion is rising in the heart of Kansas City, in the Beacon Hill neighborhood. Site selection for this project reflected the principles I have applied throughout my career. As Chairman of the Planning, Zoning, and Economic Development Committee on the Kansas City City Council from 2003 to 2007, I presided over the largest economic development boom in the city's history, directly impacting over $10 billion in development. I learned what makes a site work: zoning alignment, transit access, proximity to services, community support, and long term neighborhood trajectory. The Beacon Hill site met those criteria.

The Mabion is a $19.3 million development structured as a 4% federal LIHTC deal without the state match. That financing decision was deliberate. The 4% credit, paired with tax exempt bonds, allowed us to move on our timeline rather than waiting for a competitive 9% allocation round. Without the state match, we had a larger financing gap to fill, which required assembling a creative capital stack from multiple sources.

As Vice Chairman of the Missouri Housing Development Commission from 2009 to 2017, I reviewed hundreds of LIHTC applications and voted on allocations. That experience gave me an understanding of how deals are evaluated, what makes financing structures work, and where projects fail. The Mabion's financing reflects those lessons: conservative underwriting, realistic cost assumptions, and a capital stack that does not depend on any single source.

In October 2024, we broke ground on The Mabion with Mayor Quinton Lucas and city leaders at the ceremony. That moment represented more than the start of construction. It represented years of community engagement, financing assembly, and the kind of persistent, detail oriented work that affordable housing development demands.

Community support does not happen by accident. It is the result of showing up, listening, and demonstrating that your project will strengthen the neighborhood rather than disrupt it. We invested in those relationships long before the first shovel hit the ground.

The Mabion represents The Nash Group's commitment to creating quality affordable housing that strengthens neighborhoods and provides families with stable foundations for success. Every unit is affordable. Every unit serves families who need dignified housing in a community that supports their well being.

At The Nash Group, we believe that affordable housing is an essential social determinant of health. Where you live shapes who you become. If your home life is unstable, everything in your life is going to be unstable. The Mabion is designed to give 57 families the stability they need to build better lives.

One of the principles that guides every Nash Group development is that we build community, we do not displace it. The Mabion is not a project being imposed on Beacon Hill from the outside. It is a project that honors the neighborhood's history, serves its residents, and strengthens its future.

That principle comes from lived experience. I grew up in Section 8 public housing in Kansas City. I know what it feels like when development happens to a community rather than for it. I know what displacement looks like. And I know that the best affordable housing developments are the ones where the community sees itself in the project, starting with the name on the building.

The Mabion is 57 homes. It is $19.3 million in investment. It is a 4% federal LIHTC deal without the state match. But more than any of those numbers, it is a promise to Beacon Hill: we are building this for you, and it will be here long after the construction fences come down.

Dr. Troy Nash is CEO and Co-Founder of The Nash Group, LLC. The Nash Group is building 254+ affordable housing units across Kansas City and St. Louis with over $100 million in total development costs.